Glossary · Trading basics

Stake

The amount of money you commit to a single trade — and, in a fixed-payout trade, the most you can lose on it.

By Sky Trade editorial teamUpdated November 5, 2026

Your stake is the sum you put on one trade. In a fixed-payout Higher/Lower trade it does two jobs at once: it is the base of the profit calculation and the ceiling of your loss. If the trade wins, you get the stake back plus the payout percentage of it; if it loses, the stake is gone; if the closing price equals the entry price exactly, the stake is refunded.

Because the loss per trade is capped, beginners often treat the stake as harmless. It isn't. Ten losing trades of $20 cost $200 just as surely as one bad position elsewhere. What matters is the stake relative to your whole balance, which is the subject of position sizing.

A common mistake is raising the stake after a loss to “win it back”. That is the logic of the martingale, and it multiplies risk exactly when your judgement is weakest.

In the Sky Trade terminal the stake can be set from $1 to $50,000 (default limits), and the + / − keys change it quickly. The mechanics are covered in how Higher/Lower trades work.

Example

With a $25 stake and an 85% payout, a winning trade returns $46.25 ($25 back plus $21.25 profit); a losing trade costs exactly $25.

Learn more in the academy

How Higher/Lower trades work: stake, expiry, payout and settlement
The mechanics of a Higher/Lower trade step by step: instrument, stake, direction, expiry, entry price, payout %, win, loss and tie, with a worked example.

Related terms

Practise first, then decide

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